WPY 2013

Race for life

Jaguars kill either by throat-bite suffocation or by seizing their prey at the back of the head and then crunching down through the skull with their canines - also used for breaking through turtle shells. One of a jaguar's favourite prey animals is capybara, the world's largest rodent. Since sunrise, Zig had been tracking a female jaguar from a boat on the Rio Cuiabá, in the Mato Grosso state. Ahead of her, he spotted a capybara on the sandy bank. 'I just had time to set up,' he says, before the jaguar burst out of the undergrowth. At the same moment, the capybara saw her and raced for the river. Both animals are competent swimmers, but on this occasion, the capybara had just enough of an advantage to escape with its skull intact.

Photograph Details

Commended 2013

Behaviour: Mammals

Zig Koch, Brazil

Race for life

Jaguars kill either by throat-bite suffocation or by seizing their prey at the back of the head and then crunching down through the skull with their canines - also used for breaking through turtle shells. One of a jaguar's favourite prey animals is capybara, the world's largest rodent. Since sunrise, Zig had been tracking a female jaguar from a boat on the Rio Cuiabá, in the Mato Grosso state. Ahead of her, he spotted a capybara on the sandy bank. 'I just had time to set up,' he says, before the jaguar burst out of the undergrowth. At the same moment, the capybara saw her and raced for the river. Both animals are competent swimmers, but on this occasion, the capybara had just enough of an advantage to escape with its skull intact.

Technical specification

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